UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Releases New Open Access Policy

UPDATE: Responses from Groups and Publishers

• ALPSP
• cOAlition S
• COPIM
• Frontiers
• IOP Publishing
• JISC
• Research Libraries UK (RLUK)
• STM
• Taylor & Francis

UPDATE Media Coverage “Major U.K.Science Funder To Require Grantees To Make Papers Immediately Free to All” (via Science)

From a UKRI Announcement:

 UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) new policy will increase opportunity for the findings of publicly funded research to be accessed, shared and reused.

Following extensive consultation with the sector, UKRI has published a single Open Access Policy for research publications that acknowledge funding from its councils.

UKRI’s updated policy requires immediate open access for peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication from 1 April 2022.

Monograph requirement

It also includes a new requirement for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024 to be made open access within 12 months of publication.

UKRI will provide increased funding of up to £46.7 million per annum to support the implementation of the policy.

For peer-reviewed research articles, key requirements of the new policy include:

• immediate open access for research articles submitted for publication on or after 1 April 2022
• either via the version of record in a journal or publishing platform, or by depositing the authors accepted manuscript (or if permitted by the publisher the version of record) in an institutional or subject repository
• CC BY licence and CC BY ND by exception, including a requirement to notify publisher of licensing at the point of submission.

Key requirements of the new policy for monographs published on or after 1 January 2024 include:

• the final version of a publications or accepted manuscript being made open access via a publisher’s website, platform or repository, within a maximum of 12 months of publication
• CC BY licence preferred, but NC and ND licences are permitted.

The UKRI Open Access Policy will replace the existing research councils Policy on Open Access, which applies to peer-reviewed research articles acknowledging research council funding and was published in 2013.

The policy is the outcome of the UKRI open access review, which commenced in autumn 2018. UKRI consulted on a draft position during spring 2020, receiving 350 responses.

Resources

• Direct to Full Text of OA Policy (13 pages; PDF)
• Direct to Full Text of Explanation of Policy Changes (9 pages; PDF)
• Direct to “Shaping Our Open Access Policy”
• Direct to Benefits of New Policy by Professor Sir Duncan Wingham, UKRI Executive Champion for Open Research

Read the Complete Announcement

Responses from Groups and Publishers

• ALPSP
• cOAlition S
• Frontiers
• IOP Publishing
• JISC
• Research Libraries UK (RLUK)
• STM
• Taylor & Francis

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Frontiers, Funding, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Open Access, Publishing